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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake

It's been a while since I baked last.I mean,in my kitchen and in my oven.When I was in my hometown a while back,me and amma did a good amount of baking together.I had compiled a list of Eggless recipes and we baked a cake/cookie everyday I was there.The star of course,was Nankhatai.I will share the recipe for THE Nankhatai in a while.The best I've made so far.

Amma isn't very fond of Chocolate cakes,so despite wanting to bake this cake for long,I had to skip baking this.Made a mental note to bake this as soon as I landed in Chennai,but it wasn't to be.Life's quite busy these days and to measure,sift,line the pan and bake did seem like a bit too much work,yes it happens to me too!While watching Masterchef last night,I saw this fudgy,gooey chocolate cake they made for a team challenge and thought to myself-this is it!I got to buck up and bake and the first bake after the break's got to be a chocolate cake.(it rhymes!!)The recipe is quite easy to put together.It uses oil in place of butter(no waiting for butter to soften)and chopped walnuts and chocolate chips(my addition)as a natural topping.I love the combination of chocolate and walnut and added a tsp of instant coffee to the batter to pep up the flavor and the resulting cake's a winner.Fudgy and chocolatey with the crunch of walnuts,this one's truly a chocoholics treat.

IEggless Chocolate Walnut CakeRecipe adapted from PABIngredientsFlour - 1 cupCocoa powder - 1/2 cupInstant coffee powder - 1 tspThick curd(homemade) - 1 cupSugar - 3/4 cupBaking powder - 1 1/4 tspBaking soda - 1/2 tspOil - 1/2 cupVanilla bean - 1/2 of 1 bean,scraped(or else use a tsp of Vanilla extract)Chopped Walnuts - 1/2 cupVanilla bean sugar(or regular sugar) - 1 tbspChocolate chips - 2 tbspMethodPreheat oven to 200C.Grease and line an 8' round cake tin.Sift together flour,cocoa powder and coffee powder,reserve.
In a mixing bowl,beat together sugar and yogurt till creamy.Mix in baking powder,baking soda and scraped vanilla bean,beat well and let it rest for a couple of minutes or till bubbles start to appear on top.
Beat in the oil.Add the sifted flour mix and beat till you get a smooth batter.Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts,chocolate chips and sugar.Bake at 200C for 10 minutes and 170C for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.Cool the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack for further cooling.Notes

Cool the cake completely before cutting.I was impatient and cut the cake while still warm(the batter was too delicious and I couldn't wait!).

The cake remains soft even after refrigeration,but if you are not eating it immediately,cover the cake with a cling film on top and warm it up in the microwave just before serving.

Though the cake is delicious on its own,it would pair up wonderfully with ice-cream or even some chilled coffee.

This really does sound delicious and your photo tutorial makes it possible for everyone to have great results. This is my first visit to your blog, but I plan to return. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers and I enjoyed the time I spent here. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

and one more thing i want to suggest you. do reply to the who are all commenting on the post. this will made them happy than your blogging. they might have some queries regarding your recipes. i seen many of your post and people do put their ques but you dint replied. so clarify if are free. then say thanks at least. hope you don't mind.

Maya,thank you for the suggestion.I do try to respond to queries via email with my readers(in reply to comments)and if it is regarding a particular recipe I usually update the recipe itself.And I didn't understand what you meant by 'say thanks at least',you mean for comments?

The pics were too hard to resist. I made this yesterday. Turned out yummilicious. My first try with curd in eggless bakes. I loved the addition of walnut and choco-chips. Will post soon on my blog. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much for sharing such a simple recipe for eggless chocolate walnut cake - it was super yummy and super soft - http://foodiessphere.blogspot.in/2012/04/eggless-baking-chocolate-walnut-cake.html

horrible recipe the measurements were off and also the baking temperatures were not good after 2 hours the cake didn't get made and when it finally did it was burnt.... don't waste your time or ingredients...

Anon-just because the recipe did not work out for you does not imply that the recipe is wrong.Maybe you went wrong somewhere and did you say you baked the cake for 2 hours and it was not baked through,then I think it is high time you changed your oven!

Hey Divya... lovely recipe :) I tried it few days back and it came out good (though not as good as urs! as this was my first attempt at a big sized cake.)

I had some queries... I use a Microwave oven too with convention mode (Electrolux). I followed the process as mentioned by u, though the final taste was yummy, the crust was a bit over baked. Now am not sure if it was due to any of the following reasons:

1. I baked in a glass borosil vessel. (did not have a suitable baking tray)

2. There might be a temperature setting difference between urs and my oven? (I too set it to 200C but had to switch it off in 10 minutes, as the top was getting crusty)

3. I had no butter paper, so did not cover my cake on top.(is this really necessary or butter paper shud be used only to cover the top wen its begining to burn?)

Also wanted to know, if I can use normal aluminium baking vessels that we get in stores in my convention oven? Never tried that as I felt only micro friendly black tinted vessels or glass vessels shud be used for baking in micro.

Nanspai,I am guessing the crust was overbaked maybe because the cake pan was very close to the heating coil?Baking in a glass dish does take some extra time as metal tins conduct heat evenly and bake sooner than the glass counterparts.

The temperature setting is right,you have to bake the cake initially for 10 minutes at 200C and then reduce the temperature at 170C and bake for a further 30-35 minutes.Since this is a chocolate cake,we can never tell if it is crusty or starting to burn,so go by instinct.If you feel the top is getting crustier than usual,cover it with a butter paper or aluminium foil and then bake.This ensures that the cake bakes through without burning the crust.

For convection cooking,you can use the aluminium tins quite safely since there are no Microwave rays in convection mode.

Hey thanks a lot for that quick reply! :) Will try baking using aluminium trays next time (i see u have used that too for this recipe). Anyway, I was satisfied with my first attempt of baking a cake and will definitely be visiting your page for more baked yummies :) thanks!

hi divya, could you please mention the measurements in gram? i saw your link for cup to gram conversion but got confused again. I tried your eggless BFC and corn tarts and both turned out awesome... i regularly follow your post and you are an inspiration...